Casino Global Sourcing - Sourcing division of Groupe Casino

Reliable Asia-based
Sourcing

About Us

Who we are

OUR MISSION
OUR HISTORY

What we do is simple… we work as a sourcing agent and assist our clients in locating, choosing and negotiating products. We are dedicated to those categories which we have strengths in food products, hard lines and soft lines. We have developed a strong vendor basis especially in China and Bangladesh.

Our main objective is to ensure that our clients get the lowest possible price for their desired quality grade. We source vendors, certify factories and products, monitor production and inspect final goods. We can oversee logistics and shipping to the port of destination. We have been a part of this industry since the late ’90s…

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We started working as the sourcing agent for our parent company in the late ’90s by opening a small office in Bangkok. Over the years, we opened (and sometimes re-organised) offices in Hong-Kong, then in Mainland China, then in Vietnam, Bangladesh, India and South America…

Our business scope quickly evolved: from being a simple interface between foreign buyers and local vendors, to assisting clients in product development, quality assurance and quality control programs and offering logistics and consolidation services.

Today we serve multiple clients in Europe, the Americas and Asia, including most banners from� Groupe Casino,a world leading retailer.

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SOURCING FROM ASIA IS EASIER

Sourcing from Asia is easier because Asia is no longer the “Wild East”. Over time, Asia-based vendors have improved their grasp of the client base, their product/market fit, understanding of product quality grading and overall communications.

BUT SUPPLY CHAINS ARE MORE COMPLEX

Despite these improvements, the increasing complexity of retailer supply chains ― involving multiple steps, compliance requirements, processes and milestones to be achieved over an ever-contracting product life cycle ― presents constant challenges.

INADEQUATE LEGACY SOURCING ORGANIZATIONS

Small or integrated sourcing structures are not at an adequate scale nor can they maintain an overall market vision.

Larger sourcing agents evolve into exceedingly sophisticated high-cost organizations, adding multiple “value-added” services, that tally up to increased acquisition costs, when not directly competing with their clients.

HOW WE BRING VALUE

We bring value to companies that aim to increase their margins by working directly with Asia-based vendors for product lines they currently source from importers or wholesalers or that are seeking to benchmark, challenge or complement their agents or internal sourcing department along the supply chain in terms of innovation, quality, acquisition cost, origin, or processing speed.

OUR CORE CATEGORIES

Food Products

Hard Lines

Soft Lines

OUR FOOTHOLDS

East Asia

China is viewed as a critical supply base. Since there is no substitute for having capable people on the ground, we’re headquartered in Hong Kong and located some of our central function teams in Guangzhou.

Western Europe

France is not only the motherland of our parent company – Groupe Casino, but also a focal point for our food product sourcing in European countries, Africa continent and Mediterranean regions.

South Asia

By evaluating other sourcing options in Asia, we established footholds in Bangladesh (the next hotspot in apparel sourcing) and in Thailand (a hub rich with opportunities for� food sourcing across Southeast Asia).

South America

To have a synergistic effect, we make the suppliers from the Americas an integral part of the food and beverage product development system by coordinating with our offices in Colombia and Brazil.

HOW WE DO IT

WHAT MAKES US DIFFERENT

Simple and Lean

Our organization is simple and lean, we permanently work on reducing our costs… a legacy of our roots as a retailer. We are the sourcing arm of Casino Group, a retailer with yearly sales of over US$60 billion.

Obsessively Focused

We focus exclusively on categories for which we have extensive product expertise, several years of experience and dependable vendor portfolios based in sourcing countries where we maintain an active office.

Totally Transparent

We are totally transparent with respect to our activities, resources and the vendors or factories with which we work. We qualify technically these factories and audit them for social and environmental compliance.

Sourcing & Order Execution

We concentrate exclusively on sourcing & order execution which is our forte: we let client’s in-house designers, style specialists and creative teams do their work. We work with them, we don’t compete with them.

Consolidating Buying Power

We employ our annual sourcing volume (US$350 million) as a lever to negotiate lower price for all clients. We consolidate purchases of various clients among a few vendors for each category.

Highly Accountable

We maintain a nimble and flexible organization to meet our clients changing needs, they interact with clearly identified, highly accountable counterparts. We commit and we deliver on quality level and shipment dates.

Our history

1998

Beginning of Sourcing Adventure

We have come a long way from a small office in Bangkok, then moved into our headquarters in Hong Kong in 1998. We operated under the name “Opera Asia Limited” for Hardlines and Softlines product sourcing and with another office in Nanning, China for food product sourcing.

2003

Sourcing Network Expansion

Following partnership separation agreement, we changed name to “EMC Distribution Ltd. (European Merchandise Casino)” and went on expanding our own sourcing network by opening offices in Hangzhou, India, Bangladesh and Morocco.

2004

Making The Most of China Sourcing

We further increased sourcing volume in China by opening a branch office in Guangzhou focusing on Hardlines product sourcing and another office for ready-made garment sourcing in Shanghai.

2008

ERP System Implementation

To more accurately reflect our business activities, we re-branded and renamed to “Casino Global Sourcing”. The ERP system “Utrade” was also implemented to streamline business processes and data. It is not only used across the entire organization, but also by some of the business units within Groupe Casino and freight forwarders.

2013

A Leaner Casino Global Sourcing

In an effort to rationalize resources and optimize capacity, we restructured all sourcing office activities by concentrating only on our footholds in Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Bangladesh, Thailand and our representative offices in Colombia, France and Brazil.

2014

Launch of Digital Showroom: godirek.com

Godirek showcases about 10,000 electronics and home products with the aim of providing product ideas for any sellers to private label. It also offers private labeling tips, product and manufacturer sourcing strategies as well as global e-commerce trends.

2015

We Are Certified ISO9001

By implementing an efficient and time saving quality management system and work processes across the Hardlines division, we achieved ISO 9001 certification.

Now